Saturday Stalemate
Sounders and Timbers come to 0-0 tie
The Seattle Sounders came into their game on June 3rd, 2023 against the Portland Timbers looking for revenge against a team that has recently bested them, both at home in Seattle and on the road in Portland, where their most recent match ended in a 4-1 win for the Timbers. Seattle also hoped that the return of star midfielder Cristian Roldan, who had been out with a concussion, could propel the Sounders to victory.
The first half started out slow on the action. Neither the Sounders nor the Timbers created a great deal of scoring opportunities in the first twenty minutes, but the Timbers drove the ball deep into Sounders territory several times around the midpoint of the first half. They were stopped by Stefan Frei and the Sounders defense every time. The closest the Timbers came to scoring in the half was on a drive in the 27th minute when Timbers forward Dairon Asprilla attempted a bicycle kick that rolled its way into the hands of a late-diving Frei.
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The Sounders came back more aggressively in the second half. A 54th-minute corner kick by Nico Lodeiro went up in the air barely two feet from the goal line but was barely swatted away by Timbers goalie Aljaz Ivacic. Soon after, Roldan and Ruidiaz entered the match, which had the promise of bringing more energy to the Sounders, but intermittent scoring opportunities in the next minutes produced nothing except an altercation between Sounders rookie Cody Baker and Timbers defender Claudio Bravo that resulted in a yellow card for Bravo.
The lack of scoring continued into the five minutes of stoppage time that ended the game. Despite opportunities for both teams, nobody managed to find the back of the net, and a diving catch by Frei ended the game, securing a point each for Portland and Seattle and giving Frei the 100th shutout of his career.
Frei was happy that he and the team were able to keep the Timbers off the board, but he downplayed his personal achievement and emphasized the collective nature of the sport and the primary goal of winning.
“I think the clean sheet shows that we put in a lot of work, because it takes a heck of a lot of effort from all eleven guys on the field for you to be able to keep a clean sheet,” he said. “Personal accolades are nice and all, but we play to win trophies. And, I guess if you look at it that way, the more clean sheets I have, the higher chance we have of getting in positions to win trophies, so it kind of works out. But I’ve been blessed with good teammates.”
While the Sounders defense was stalwart, their offense was unable to put up a goal. Head coach Brian Schmetzer attributed this to a combination of a lack of scoring opportunities.
“The question I asked them was: did we really create enough chances?” he said. “And I think you could say the answer is probably not, and we need to create a little bit more.”
Not only did the Sounders create few chances for themselves, but they also failed to capitalize on the ones that they did create. Roldan said that the team is going to look to tweak its approach in order to get more players on their attack.
“I think [having] runners in the box is very important. You don’t give yourself a chance to get on the end of a cross if there’s one guy in the box,” he said. “And so, that’s probably going to be a point of emphasis for us.”
But although the Sounders didn’t win their game, they didn’t lose it either, and Schmetzer noted that he has the mixed feelings on the game that a tie warrants having.
“A tie is a tie, you know. It’s not great, and there are certain positives that we’ll try and take out of the game,” he said. He also pointed out that, heading into the halfway point of the season, the Sounders are still in a good position.
“If you look at the season as a whole, 27 points. 54 probably gets you in the playoffs. We’ve been hovering around first and second all season,” he noted. “Overall, the team has done well. We’re in a stretch here where the results could have been better … but overall, I can’t be horribly upset.”
The Sounders have a week break before their next game, which is on June 10th against Charlotte FC in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. After that is the international break.
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